[Foundation-l] [Fwd: [Wmfcc-l] Citizendium, a new venture, will "fork" off from online encyclopedia Wikipedia]

[Jeffrey V. Merkey]

Sanger will fail for all the same reasons Wikipedia has hit a wall of 
late on growth of articles. Wikipedia has reached critical mass
of information and it's "good enough" in most peoples minds. Beyond 
translation activities and divergence into Wikiversity type of programs,
and incremental updates of content, it will hover around 1.4 million 
articles until it gets another massive infusion of content from some
other source. There's also the glaring fact the 2% of the community 
create 98% of the content on average (based on Slashdot study published
last month). And these 2% usually become inactive after they drop 
content into the project. I see a lot of activitiy in recent edits, but
growth has been stagnant for several months and quality has been 
improving dramatically.

Without a new information source or innovative technology play, Sanger 
will fail.

Jeff

>-------- Original Message --------
>Subject: 	[Wmfcc-l] Citizendium, a new venture, will "fork" off from 
>online encyclopedia Wikipedia
>Date: 	Sat, 16 Sep 2006 16:14:39 +0200
>From: 	Mathias Schindler <mathias.schindler at gmail.com>
>Reply-To: 	Communications Committee <wmfcc-l at mail.wikimedia.org>
>To: 	Communications Committee <wmfcc-l at mail.wikimedia.org>
>
>
>
>WASHINGTON INTERNET DAILY
>
>September 18, 2006 Monday
>
>INTERNATIONAL
>
>SECTION: INTERNATIONAL
>
>LENGTH: 187 words
>
>Citizendium, a new venture, will "fork" off from online encyclopedia
>Wikipedia, said Larry Sanger, one of Wikipedia's founders. Sanger,
>dir.-collaborative projects for the Digital University Foundation,
>spoke last week at the Wizard of OS (Open Source) Conference in
>Berlin. Wikipedia is committed to anonymity; Citizendium will stress
>personal responsibility for content, pushing for higher quality, he
>said, noting that Wikipedia's anonymity draws troublemakers. On
>Citizendium, content will be reviewed by editors who, while
>self-selecting, will have to substantiate their expertise. If
>Wikipedia had been admitting its problems, Sanger said, "I would have
>been much less motivated to go on with Citizendium." Martin Haase, a
>Wikipedia board member in Germany, said Wikipedia is working on
>quality. Soon, the encyclopedia will have its own means of validation
>and some editorial control, he said. Citizendium and Wikipedia can
>coexist, Sanger said. His role in Wikipedia was called into question
>years ago by fellow Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, spurring Sanger to
>quit his position as "chief organizer" of Wikipedia. -- ME
>
>LOAD-DATE: September 15, 2006
>
>LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
>
>PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newsletter
>
>
>Copyright 2006 Warren Publishing, Inc.
>All Rights Reserved
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